Defending champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta was shown the door by his Petroleum Sports Promotion Board team mate Arvind Bhatt while top seed seed Chetan Anand [ Images ] had to toil to defeat JBS Vidyadhar in the semi-finals of the 68th National Badminton Championships in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Bhatt engaged the aggressive Allahabad champion in long rallies to unsettle him and win at 15-12, 3-15, 15-7, while Hyderabad's Vidyadhar streched Anand to the wire before losing 10-15, 15-7, 9-15.

In the women's singles, Aparna Popat defeated Saina Nahwal of Andhra Pradesh 11-3, 11-5 to set up a title clash with Trupti Murugunde of Maharashtra [ Images ], who beat former national champion Manjusha Kanwar 11-1, 11-5.

But the day's honours went to Bhatt, who got the better of his more fancied opponent.

The 23-year-old displayed great court coverage to race to a 13-7 lead and then halted a late charge by Gupta to take the first game at 15-12.

But the defending champion proved that it was not over yet as he ran away with the second game at 15-3 and then took a 6-2 lead in the decider.

However, Bhatt came back strongly to level the score at 7-7 and then engaged Gupta in long rallies to take the game and match, after wasting as many as seven match-points.

In the other semi-final, Anand took the first game with ease but then lost his touch to hand over the advantage to Vidyadhar, who grabbed it with both hands and won 15-7.

In the decider, both the players tried to match each other shot for shot and the local boy even saved as many as four match-points before conceding defeat.

Results (semi-finals):

Men: Arvind Bhatt (PSPB) bt Abinn Shyam Gupta (PSPB) 15-12, 3-15, 15-7; Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt JBS Vidyadhar (PSPB) 15-10, 7-15, 15-9.

Women: Aparna Popat (PSPB) bt Saina Nehwal [ Images ] (AP) 11-3, 11-5; Trupti Murugunde (Mah) bt Manjusha Kanwar (PSPB) 11-1, 11-5.